BOOK CLUB QUESTION TIME
Here are the first five book club question i love us all to post your answers
I like to thank Rene for answer my question too
1 Which character did you like best?
RENE
I love them all! When you spend so much time developing them as an author you give them their personality and quirks! Sometimes those quirks are annoying, but then that makes for a great character in your book. Maggie is closest to my heart. I get her. She’s dealt with abandonment and trust issues for a long time after she left the orphanage. Having her finally let them go to trust again was a big accomplishment.
ME AJ
I just love maggie she missed out on so much in her life she now a very successful author she should be happy , but i got to say my heart when out to them all .The bond they build was very good it made maggie a stronger person
2 Who did you not like?
Rene
In Bishop Street how could you not love all of them? They were all innocent children pushed into an ugly childhood and then thrown out into the cruel world. They are became successful in their own way, except Lucy. The one scene where Maggie finds her in the sleezebag hotel had me crying for days. It was one of the best, emotional scenes I’ve ever written. I think the character I really hated was Sister Theresa. I made her very mean and spiteful toward the children.
Me Aj
I did not like maggie mum i want to shout at her to stop the drinking .Sister Therese was a cow very spiteful very mean women she was so bad the abuse was bad she made me think of the film annie that children home was bad i saw this one 100 times worst you just had to hate her she just took all the children childhood away in a very mean way i could see it all in my mind could you !
3 What did you think of the home?
Rene
Orphanages in those days were very sterile and unforgiving. The children merely existed and their life was far from any kind of normal. They never had privacy or individual attention. They didn’t go to the movies, shop for clothes, have sleep overs, and do all those special things that children get to do when growing up in a family. They lived a childhood without love.
Me Aj
It was bad no love or any family times i hate to think of any one living like them i hope home are so much better now
4 What did you think of Sister Therese?
Rene
I needed someone that was going to bring angst into the book for all the readers to hate. You need an aggressive and hostile person who readers can get made at.
Me aj
A cow , mean hateful lady what she did was so mean i hated her just like Rene wanted us all to feel about her
5 Would you have hire Damon?
Rene
Damon was a strong character who I wanted to butt heads with Maggie. Maggie stood her ground and never let anyone near her but Denise. I wanted Maggie and Damon to recognize their vulnerability by pushing each other. Damon would be the man of my dreams! In House of Stone you will see a different side of him.
Me Aj
I like him he was a very good character very deep he to me was a very handsome guy he become a wonderful friend to maggie he push her they grow together
RENE HAS ANSWER A FEW EXTRA QUESTION FOR ME
Where did you get the idea for Bishop Street from?
I don’t really know exactly where my ideas of my books come from. I can be sitting in the room writing and then, all of the sudden something dawns on me. The other night I woke up at three in the morning and realized what my character in my new book was going to do next. I know I love to write about issues that we all can relate to, and can feel an emotional pull from. I hear that from a lot of readers who wrote me and said, “I never cry.” But in the book they found themselves welling up with tears.
Are some of the character like people you know?
I think in the beginning of the book my acknowledgement said,
Maggie-the author in me.
Elizabeth-the mother in me.
Lucy-the lost child (childhood) in me.
Randolph-the successful part of me.
Denise-the humor in me.
Damon-the man of my dreams.
So it is safe to say, that authors write what they know and sometimes how they feel. It’s an accumulation of a lifetime of experience. And I think that is why readers relate to my books. They feel the emotional tug of the characters. My character development and dialog deals with head-on issues of childhood abandonment and how the four small orphans dealt with this throughout their lifetime.
What made you start to write?
When I came out of a long marriage and my sons were grown, I went back to my roots and decided to do what made me happy. Only, I had no clue, it had been so long. My son was in the movie industry and worked for David Kelley on ‘The Practice.’ I told him I had a great storyline I had come up with and he suggested I write it into story form. That is how Bishop Street was hatched. I sat on it for six years, and kept writing novels and screenplays. Then one day, I went into Facebook and by accident, wound up in a UK reviewer room. Sue Ward and Philomena Callan, asked for my book and I was terrified. For years, I had just been writing for me. The next thing I know they were ranting and raving about it to everyone who would listen. They begged me to publish it. They are the first to read each and every book since. They call themselves –my stalkers!
Where do you like to write?
I have a writing room upstairs in my home. I cut out a whole wall so that the room overlooks the entire house. This gives me the feeling of not being closed in. I put on some great music and sit down and let my fingers do the typing. I used to have my dear cat sit with me for my entire writing career. But he passed on six months ago, and I miss him dearly.
What advice could you gave anyone who would like to write a book?
If you think you have a story to tell. Sit down and write. Don’t worry about the grammar or editing or anything. Just concentrate on the story and make sure it flows. It is a very difficult field to break into. But, it is rapidly changing and publishing houses are becoming obsolete as the new wave of Indie authors, like myself, forge a way to get their books out there. That is the hardest part of being an author. Having to publicize you’re on your own takes a lot of time. And readers are so fast to stray from their favorite well-known authors.
How did you come up with the idea of your newest book?
House of Stone was released this week and is the sequel to Bishop Street. I wrote two more books after Bishop Street was published. One about our ugly Healthcare System and a woman who takes it down. Another, about how our society views beauty. But, House of Stone was kind of pushed on me. I laughed, because after the reviewers/fans/readers read it, they all had begged me to write a sequel. I put it off, until one day when my cat died. Filled with grief, I sequestered myself into my writing room and felt my comfort amongst my old friends from Bishop Street. It is a great story about what has transpired in the orphans lives five years later!
Who is your biggest inspiration?
The book that influenced me more than anything in my life is, The Wizard of Oz. I think the meaning of it is totally different looking at it through a child’s eyes, than as an adult. To me, Dorothy was going on her journey in life to see where she really belonged. The yellow brick road represented her journey. We all have a journey in life, and we all walk down our own yellow brick road. It is filled with people we meet, obstacles that happen, and decisions that change our lives. I try to make every book I write, about someone’s journey. So far it has worked! AND you will always notice, stuck in some place in each of my books, there is a reference to ‘the wizard of oz.’
I HOPE YOU ALL ENJOY ARE FIRST BOOK CLUB READ ? Please tell me
COULD WE ALL ANSWER THE FIRST 5 QUESTION I LOVE US TO TALK ABOUT ARE ANSWERS
TO WIN A E BOOK OF HOUSE WRITE YOUR REVIEWS OF BISHOP STREET FOR ME AND POST ME YOUR LINK BY 8 th sept
Rene will pick one winner
post on my Facebook or blog
sparklebook4u.wordpress.com/
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